Life as a carbon-based life form; a journey of building on success and learning from mistakes.

Sat, 05 Jun 2004 22:06:04 +1000

Cape Solander

Whale watching at Cape Solander. An excuse to run away from the Pop culture circus. I hate whats on commercial TV these days, so much Pop culture rubbish. People who are wannabes their idol, people who kept in captivities, and people over-wear trendy clothes and makeups, they look like a bunch of clowns if you ask me.

They say 'In 100 years is will all be over'. How true - in the end we are left with nothing, while there are so many other things out there to think and experience and do. Australia is really an amazing place, I drove down to Cape Solander to escape from it all. But there was no whales today, so spent the afternoon listening to the waves and breathing ocean air.

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 17:46:37 +1000

Vesak Festival (part 2)

I start tutoring again from this weekend, one class a week, 9:00am to mid day every sunday.

Vesak Festival at Phuoc Hue temple this week, Thinh called to meet up for lunch with a couple of old friends.

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 20:29:06 +1000

Being single #14

For your information, yes, I still sleep in a sleeping bag at night.

Wed, 09 Jun 2004 22:53:05 +1000

Decision making

Today, my journey through life I have comes to an intersection, need to make a choice. Its time to decise to turn to another road or keep on going straight.

Dad had sold our house in Vietnam, because its no longer rentable, the political system over there is getting unstable. Dad asked me what do I want to do with it. In his mind he wanted me to sell my apartment and combine with the money to buy a bigger house. I said I'll give an answer by the weekend.

My parents' age is approaching late 50's, I want to use it to buy them a nice place in Adelaide for retirement. I know Dad will love it because now he can be closer to his old Army friends.

Use it between mutual funds and bonds for Mum and Dad's retirement plan.

Use it to invest in a business and hire people to work in it. I heard about a take-away shop for sale in Cabramatta West area. But that area is mostly working class, they probably not interested in dinning out after a long day at work.

Use it to rent a warehouse, start a supply-chain distribution centre, importing digital goods.

Use it to extend digital and electronic goods to a Nghia's existing video rental shop. In turn generating revenues for both businesses. I dont need to look after the business because Nghia is trustworthy.

Use it to buy a house in inner-state for my little brother. He wanted a place in Tasmania.

Use it to buy a house with a friend in Melbourne, shes a first home buyer and cant afford to buy her investment home on her own starting salary.

Or Use it to follow Dad's idea. Selling my apartment, buying a house and keep paying mortgage.

Sat, 12 Jun 2004 15:06:49 +1000

Housing

Spent most of the morning cleaning up my room and deleting junk data on my computer.

Did some cosmetic fix to my weblog design, and bugfix for my weblog engine, Microblogger.

Coastal walk @ Royal National Park

A walk along the Royal National Park coast. We saw Skippy, the friendly bush kangaroo, but it ran away when we were trying to approach it.

We got to see the whales, it was awesome. Maybe I'll go see them again.

Everyone seems to have fun day in the sun, wait till tomorow when the pain kicks in. Robert has the complete set of photos on the walk.

On my journey back I almost didnt make it out of the national park, I got only have about $1 worth of petrol left in the tank, the scary/fun moments were looking at the meter and hoping it wont run out.

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 00:25:02 +1000

Dent on the rear

Brick fence and car dont mix. My little brother reversed his car into a friend's fence leaving a dent on the rear, this look like a Do It Yourself job.

And boys will be boys.

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 23:06:05 +1000

Free the Children

Making a donation to Free the Children to help with their projects for 2004-2005. Namely in response for the building of the primary school in Ganzu province China.

I feel the need to give because I came from a proverty background, I know the situations of these kids. When I was 9 I was an orphan, without organisation like Free the Children sponsoring me, I wouldnt be where I am today.

In the near future I will start my own campaign building a shelter accomodation for homeless kids to have an education and finding work. Giving them a second chance in life. Theres a song called Teach your children well by Crosby, it keeping me in touch in reaching this goal.

Sat, 19 Jun 2004 15:29:47 +1000

Being single #15

Finish applying the filler on the dent, now is a matter of waiting for it to harden.

While waiting I'm taking my dog out for a leak. Its quite windy and the clouds have gathered for a big storm tonight.

I droped by Cabramatta to pick up some food, when I notice there's going to be a Drum Hot Chilli festival on next week, its going to be fun! Moon festival is coming soon too, sometime in August.

Sun, 20 Jun 2004 12:41:03 +1000

Late night movie #3

Friends coming over to watch some XXX movies, but the girls went red-faced so we ended up watching Soul Plane and The Legend of Zu on a Sony VPL-CX1 projector.

Sun, 20 Jun 2004 17:50:36 +1000

Tip to sooth the throat

The winter chill is approaching, its snowing is certain part of Sydney. After coming back from teaching a class this morning I began sneezing continuously.

I think I'm coming down with a cold. So I mix myself a glass of warm water, lemon and honey - its really sooth the sore throat. Beats going to the doctor! I dont like doctor, dentist and circus clowns.

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 00:25:00 +1000

Grandpa is ill

News that my Grandpa is getting very ill, Mum and Dad are packing to fly back to Vietnam tomorow morning to check up on his conditions. Grandmamma died about two years ago. I really admire my grandparents, I admire their love for each other for more than 50 years through times of good and bad. I have all together nine aunties and uncles, on my grandparents on mum's side I have one auntie and ten uncles.

Its common for a family in the old days to have lots of childrens, fertility is highly valued in Vietnamese culture.

I hope Grandpa get well soon, and live longer to share more stories with us.

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 04:47:33 +1000

A buddle of joy

Congratulation to Wilson Tanya on their first born son, Jonathan Truong.

It must have being a great buddle of joy for them, I'm looking forward to watch little Jonathan growing up.

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 17:00:36 +1000

Underconstruction

A day out to inspect the new head office building currently underconstruction. The company is constructing offices and a warehouse covering this 70,000 square metres premises. We will begins moving in at the end of August. The main building will be ready then, our IT Department will occupies half of the 2nd stories of the main building.

We got the best view ever, it overlooking the Rosehill Gardens Racecourse. There will be a coffee and cafeteria construct next to our main building; owned by our company. There even an indoor gym!

The best thing about it is Parramatta CBD is just 5 minutes drive away. This place rocks!

Sun, 27 Jun 2004 15:25:05 +1000

Cabramatta Drum Hot Chilli Festival

Its a 5 minutes walk from my place to Cabramatta shopping center. I'm looking for some chilli taste buzz to spice up my Sunday afternoon.

Cabramatta comes alive with the sounds of Latin American culture and the taste of South East Asia. There were tango, Flamenco and Columbian dance groups, singers and a Latin American comedian performing on stage. It was a nice day out for the kids.

Even though Cabramatta have largely Vietnamese nationality, there are still people of other cultures living around us, like Italians, Spanish and Portuguese. The one thing we have in common is our passion for soccer, so we get along pretty well.